TUSTIN – At Ladera Elementary School, good behavior is always rewarded, not only by teachers and staff, but by the kids themselves.

Every semester, 15 fifth-graders selected as "Leopard Leaders" are authorized to distribute "Right Thing" cards to anyone they see making positive choices. All faculty members also hand out the bright green slips of paper, which may be exchanged for small prizes.

"It's a focus on the positive for students," said Ryan Bollenbach, principal at Ladera Elementary. "If you get caught doing the right thing, you get a Right Thing card. It's a lot more enjoyable to reward students for good behavior."

The strategy works so well that when teachers tell their kids to be quiet passing through the school's interior hallways, the children listen.

"You'll have 80 kids moving in utter silence," Bollenbach said.

For its success in maintaining a positive learning environment and its consistent and enviable scholastic showing, Ladera Elementary School has been ranked the No. 9 best elementary campus in Orange County in the Register's 2010 analysis of public school quality. Click here to see our database of all 388 schools.

"My favorite part is the teachers," said 11-year-old Will Cohen of Tustin, a Ladera fifth-grader. "They are not very strict. Everyone is nice here."

Reinforcing good behavior is just one of several techniques that high-performing Ladera Elementary is refining and perfecting.

This year, the Tustin Ranch school also has expanded its intervention programs and doubled the number of instructional aides.

Under the school's Response to Intervention program – aimed at helping teachers target students who need extra help – kids no longer stay in one classroom all day. They are all assigned to one of three categories – intensive, benchmark or enrichment – based on their skill level in math and language arts.

Twice a week, for 50 minutes at a time, the kids physically move to another classroom in their grade level and work in small groups, either on language arts or math.

"I can't see another way to do it," said Ladera second-grade teacher Erin Neuer, a six-year educator. "When we first started doing it, it was very difficult – all the second-grade teachers were prepping for all three levels. But we're able to do more for the students, because we're able to focus on a particular skill, where another group might not need it."

Ladera Elementary is just off Tustin Ranch Road in the heart of Tustin's sprawling Tustin Ranch development. The school opened in 2001 and was named a California Distinguished School in 2006.

Every year, the school racks up a waiting list about 75 names long of parents who live outside its attendance boundaries and want to send their children here, Bollenbach said.

After Ladera, students attend Tustin's Pioneer Middle School, which was named the No. 1 public middle school in Orange County in 2009 by the Orange County Register, followed by Tustin's Beckman High School.

The campus boasts a number of specialty programs, including Art Masters, the Ladera Laps running program at lunchtime, the Class Act music program and a special P.E. program called Coordinated Approach to Child Health, or CATCH.

"We're huge on sportsmanship," said Maryanne Liscio, Ladera's CATCH teacher and a parent with one child at the school. "It's not as much about competition as understanding the sport. In kindergarten, my goal is that they can catch, throw and be confident."

The campus also is home to the Tustin Unified School District's special-needs preschool, which enrolls about 150 youngsters. The special-needs classrooms are scattered across the elementary campus, and Ladera kids mix easily with these special-needs preschoolers, helping to reinforce the climate of tolerance and mutual respect the school is known for, Bollenbach said.

Ladera Elementary second-graders Sean Ignatuk, left, and Cole Owens make a grab for a rubber ball during P.E. class on the school's blacktop. SCOTT MARTINDALE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Ladera Elementary second-grader Arman Haghighinia, front, puts all his energy into a calisthenics warm-up exercise during P.E. Behind him is fellow second-grader Jake Greenbaum. SCOTT MARTINDALE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Ladera Elementary fourth-grader Luc Olhava-Henderson works on a social studies lesson with instructional aide Debby Ridgeway in a hallway at the Tustin school. SCOTT MARTINDALE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Ladera Elementary School Principal Ryan Bollenbach talks with fifth-graders Justin Wayt, left, and Dean Kendall about how to tie a special knot with a piece of yarn, part of a social studies class project. SCOTT MARTINDALE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Ladera Elementary School, in the Tustin Ranch area of Tustin, opened in 2001 and became a California Distinguished School in 2007. SCOTT MARTINDALE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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